About

2channel / 5channel (Japanese: 2ちゃんねる / 5ちゃんねる), often abbreviated as "2ch" (2ちゃん) or "5ch" (5ちゃん), is a Japanese text board community founded by Hiroyuki Nishimura in 1999. Following ownership disputes with Jim Watkins, the site was rebranded as 5channel in 2017 under Watkins' administration.

Since its launch in 1999, the anonymous message board has grown into one of the largest and most popular online communities in Japan, with approximately 10 million daily visitors as of 2014.

History

On May 30th, 1999, Hiroyuki Nishimura, then a Japanese college student studying at the University of Central Arkansas, created a text-based message board named 2channel as a pet project. According to Nishimura, he created the website in order to find out what would happen if there was a place on the Internet where people could post their opinions anonymously.

On January 2nd 2009, Nishimura sold 2channel's ownership to a Singaporean company Packet Monster, and insisted that he himself had resigned from the administrator. However, the authorities told to the news media that they recognised that it was a dummy company and Nishimura still dominated the service, during the investigation for a drug dealing case in 2012.^[2]

In August 2013, 2channel became to face cash-flow problems because a huge leakage of credit card information of the users who registered "2ch Viewer" service happened in that month.^[3]

On February of the following year, NT Technology, an American company which has been maintaining 2channel's servers over a decade and also provides 8chan, announced that Nishimura and his fellows were all removed due the problem above, and instead its chief officer Jim Watkins and his company Race Queen. would operate the textboard with the rights of "2ch" domain name and its service.

Nishimura launched 2ch.sc^[4], a clone site automatically copying all threads and posts from 2ch.net, in April 2014. The administrator also claimed that all the rights of 2channel was belonged to him or Packet Monster, and they hijacked the service.^[5]

In May 2016, Nishimura filed a claim to the World Intellectual Property Organization after obtaining the Japanese trademark rights to "2channel" and "2ch," though the claim was rejected that July.^[6]

5channel

After Race Queen's petition to invalidate Nishimura's Japanese trademarks for "2channel" and "2ch" was rejected by the Japan Patent Office, the company announced on October 1st, 2017 that ownership of 2channel had been transferred to Loki Technology and that the site would be renamed "5channel" to avoid further rights conflicts.^[7][8] In that statement, Race Queen revealed 2ch.net had been suffering obstructions from Nishimura's side even after the WIPO ruling favored them.

In March 2026, 5ch.net was suspended by domain registrar Epik over animal abuse-related content associated with affiliated services. The forum subsequently moved to 5ch.io.

BBSPINK

BBSPINK (PINKちゃんねる) was an adult-oriented bulletin board service established in January 2001 as a separate site for the adult boards formerly hosted on 2channel.^[9]

In March 2026, BBSPINK and related services were shut down following the suspension of the 5ch.net domain by registrar Epik.

Amezor Affiliation

According to the early adopters of the site, 2channel was conceived as an alternative destination to accommodate disgruntled visitors of Amezor Linkhouse, a bulletin board system (BBS) community originally launched on August 5th, 1997 and the first of its kind to display threads in a non-chronological order by their popularity and level of user engagement, after it began experiencing server issues due to heavy traffic volume and increasing censorship efforts. Following the mass exodus of users from Amezor to 2channel in mid-1999, the former website ultimately shut down on December 30th later that same year, which resulted in the massive growth of 2channel's user base.

Server Outages

In August 2001, 2channel also began experiencing server outage due to heavy traffic volume, which temporarily rendered several sub-boards on the site inaccessible. By March 2002, 2channel had begun displaying IP addresses of the anonymous posters after several visitors of the site became implicated in serious criminal cases, including the hijacking of a bus in May 2000.

Management

In its early years, the site was run by three central administrators: Nishimura, Ichirō Yamamoto and Yoshihiro "Yakin" Nakao, until Yamamoto left the group and Nishimura resigned from his company in 2002. Since then, the site has been managed by the only remaining member of the original three, Nakao, a server specialist and president of online media company Zero Co.Ltd, with the aid of more than 300 volunteer administrators.

Expansion

Under the management of Nakao, the website underwent a period of commercialization during which premium services like 2channel Viewer and 2channel Search were launched.

Acquisition

In January 2009, 2channel was acquired by Singaporean company Packet Monster for an undisclosed sum, amidst the mounting pressure of legal and financial troubles prompted by Hiroyuki's refusal to disclose private user information.

Features

Post Numbers and Future References

Every post on 2channel was assigned a sequential number within its thread. Since most discussions took place anonymously, these numbers became an important way to identify and reference individual replies.

Unlike forums that relied on usernames or user profiles, conversations on 2channel were often organized around post numbers themselves. Users could quote earlier replies by number, track ongoing exchanges and build temporary interactions without attaching them to a persistent identity.

Because future posts would also receive predictable numbers, users frequently referenced reply numbers that had not yet been assigned. This practice gave rise to games, collaborative threads and other forms of participation built around future responses. Cultural phenomena such as GET and Anka Threads emerged from this numbering system, while numerous other thread formats were similarly built around specific reply numbers and future references.

Sage

2channel allowed users to enter sage in the e-mail field when posting. Normally, new replies would move a thread toward the top of the board's thread list. Posts made with sage, however, allowed discussions to continue without increasing a thread's visibility.

The feature played a significant role in how threads were collectively managed by users. Because a thread's position was influenced by posting activity, participants helped determine which discussions remained prominent and which gradually faded from view. Using sage often reflected a desire to continue a discussion without drawing additional attention to it.

As a result, sage became more than a technical function. It formed part of a broader culture of user-driven thread management that influenced how discussions were maintained, promoted or allowed to disappear over time. The term subsequently spread beyond 2channel and was adopted by other imageboard communities, where it developed additional meanings and conventions of its own.

Traffic

Because of the absolute freedom and anonymity the board offered, it quickly grew to become the largest and most influential message board in Japan. According to Alexa.org^[10], 2channel today is the 153rd most popular site online. For comparison, Google is #1, Digg is #115 while 4chan is #617.

Related Memes

For the complete listing of memes that 2channel is contributed, check out KYM Collection – 2channel.

Search Interest

External References